Pickleball vs paddle tennis: what is the difference?

21 Jun 2026 6 min read

Pickleball paddle and ball beside a stringed paddle tennis racket and felt ball

Quick answer: Pickleball and paddle tennis are not the same sport. Pickleball uses a plastic ball with holes, a solid paddle, a 20ft by 44ft court and a non-volley zone. Paddle tennis usually means POP Tennis, an older tennis-based paddle sport played with a lower-compression tennis ball on a smaller tennis-style court. In the UK, people also mix the phrase up with padel, which is a different walled-court sport.

Last updated: 24 June 2026. This guide was checked against USA Pickleball's 2026 rules hub, POP Tennis court and ball guidance, LTA padel beginner guidance and American Platform Tennis Association rules.

The confusing bit is the name. Pickleball, paddle tennis, padel and platform tennis all use solid paddles or rackets. That does not make them interchangeable. Same family resemblance, different relatives.

The main differences

Feature	Pickleball	Paddle tennis / POP Tennis
Ball	Hard plastic ball with holes	Lower-compression tennis-style ball
Paddle or racket	Solid paddle with no strings	Solid paddle, often perforated, with no strings
Court feel	Compact court with a non-volley zone	Smaller tennis-style court with a lower net
Typical play	Dinks, serves, volleys and kitchen-line exchanges	Tennis-like rallies adapted to a shorter court
UK confusion	Sometimes confused with padel because both use solid paddles	Sometimes used loosely when people mean padel or platform tennis

What is pickleball?

Pickleball is a paddle sport played on a 20ft by 44ft court for both singles and doubles. The ball is plastic, hollow and drilled with holes. The non-volley zone, often called the kitchen, stops players simply standing on top of the net and smashing every ball away.

It is easy to start because the court is small and the ball slows the game down, but good pickleball is not just gentle tennis. The best points are often about touch, patience and not panicking when the ball sits up nicely and tempts you into a silly shot.

For the basics, start with what pickleball is in the UK, then move on to pickleball rules for beginners and whether pickleball is easy to learn.

What is paddle tennis?

In the clearest modern usage, paddle tennis often points to POP Tennis. It is a tennis-based paddle sport played on shorter courts with a lower net, a solid paddle and a lower-compression tennis-style ball. POP Tennis lists a 15.24m by 6.096m court option, which is smaller than a full tennis court.

That is different from pickleball. Paddle tennis does not use the same plastic ball, does not centre the game around the same kitchen rule and does not follow the same equipment standards.

Where padel fits in

Padel is another separate sport again. In Britain, the LTA treats padel as its own racket sport, usually played in doubles on an enclosed court with glass walls that are part of the game. The LTA is also clear that padel and paddle tennis are related but not the same.

This matters because some people say “paddle tennis” when they mean padel. If the court has glass walls and the ball can rebound off them after bouncing, you are probably looking at padel, not pickleball or POP Tennis.

For a court-sport comparison that includes padel, read pickleball vs padel. Do not use the old planned /pickleball-vs-padel route yet - it currently does not resolve.

And what about platform tennis?

Platform tennis is another separate paddle sport, mostly associated with North America. The American Platform Tennis Association describes a 44ft by 20ft court set on a larger deck and enclosed by a 12ft screen. That screen is part of the game, which makes it different again from POP Tennis and pickleball.

Which sport should you look for?

If you want the plastic ball with holes, kitchen line and fast-growing beginner scene, look for pickleball.
If you want a tennis-style paddle game on a shorter court with a lower-compression ball, look for POP Tennis or paddle tennis.
If you want glass walls, doubles and a sport that feels part tennis and part squash, look for padel.
If you want a screened court where the ball can come off the wire, look for platform tennis.

If your comparison is really between pickleball and tennis, use our pickleball vs tennis guide instead. It is a cleaner route than trying to make paddle tennis answer every racket-sport question.

What kit do you need for pickleball?

For pickleball, you need a pickleball paddle and approved-style pickleballs, not a tennis racket or a padel racket. The paddle is solid, the ball is lighter than a tennis ball and the court is designed around those choices.

If pickleball is the branch you want, you can browse our pickleball paddles. We are not linking a paddle-tennis or paddleball collection here because no verified Darts Connect destination exists for those routes.

Want help choosing between racket sports?

Use the Darts Connect email form at the bottom of the home page and ask for the court-sport chooser. Until article-level sign-up is approved, that is the clean fallback route.

FAQs

Is paddle tennis the same as pickleball?

No. They are different paddle sports with different balls, courts and rule sets.

Is padel the same as paddle tennis?

No. In UK usage, padel is its own walled-court sport. Paddle tennis usually refers to a smaller-court tennis-style paddle sport, though the terms are often muddled in casual conversation.

Does pickleball use a tennis ball?

No. Pickleball uses a hard plastic ball with holes. It is much lighter than a tennis ball and behaves differently in flight and on the bounce.

Does paddle tennis use a pickleball paddle?

Not normally. Paddle tennis or POP Tennis uses its own solid paddle, usually with a perforated hitting surface, and a lower-compression tennis-style ball.

Which is easier to find in the UK?

Padel and pickleball are much easier to identify through UK clubs, venues and governing-body content. Paddle tennis and platform tennis are more likely to need extra clarification because the names are used differently across countries.